Civil liberties

UK: MPs Vote in Favor of Assisted Dying Bill

JUN 20 2025·Updated JUN 23 2025

Story

Above: Campaigners for a change in the law on assisted dying celebrate outside The Palace of Westminster, home to the Houses of Parliament in central London, on June 20, 2025. Image credit: Carlos Jasso/AFP via Getty Images

The Facts

The U.K.'s Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill passed its third and final reading in the House of Commons by a margin of 314 to 291 on Friday, with the text now entering the House of Lords.
parliament.uk
parliament.uk
The text, applicable to England and Wales, allows a mentally capable adult, aged over 18, who is terminally ill with less than six months to live, to be provided a self-administered substance to end their life following approval from two doctors and an expert panel. The bill will come into full effect within four years of becoming law.
Publications
The bill passed its second reading last November by 330 votes to 275, but returned to the Commons chamber after a committee and report stage, which replaced the role of High Court approval with a review panel composed of a "legal member," a psychiatrist, and a social worker.
parliament.uk
Publications
parliament.uk
According to YouGov, as of May this year 75% of Britons were in favor of assisted dying in principle, with 73% in favor of the provisions found in the bill's text.
YouGov
The free vote saw Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper, former Labour leader Ed Miliband, and former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak vote for the bill, while Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch, Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner, Health Secretary Wes Streeting, and Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood voted against.
parliament.uk
The bill will now undergo identical stages in the House of Lords as seen in the Commons. However, under the Parliament Act 1949, the Lords cannot delay a bill from the Commons in more than two sessions within the period of one year.
parliament.uk
parliament.uk

Sources Split

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The Spin

Progressive narrative

Terminal patients deserve to be treated with dignity in their final moments, rather than enduring unnecessary suffering in hospital settings. Progressive societies recognize that compassionate choice trumps forced suffering — allowing individuals to author their own peaceful endings. When palliative care fails and pain becomes unbearable, assisted dying offers the ultimate human right: control over one's own mortality with grace.

www.ft.com

Guardian

Conservative narrative

Assisted dying shifts the role of healthcare providers from healers to executioners, corrupting medicine's core duty to preserve life. What is framed as a compassionate choice for the terminally ill inevitably has broader implications — Canada's experience highlights this unsettling truth. Rather than sanctioning state-approved killing that pressures vulnerable populations into premature death, society must invest in exceptional palliative care that honors human dignity without abandoning hope.

Spectator (UK)

The Times (UK)